Turnbuckle



July 11, 1939. GROSS 2,165,478

TURNBUCKLE Filed June 22, 1937 INVENTOR T 7 JOHN H. GROSS ATTORNEYS Patented July 11, 1939 2,165,478

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,165,478 TURNBUCKLE John H. Gross, New York, N. Y. Application June 22, 1937, Serial No. 149,614 2 Claims. (01. 287-60) The invention relates in general to a turninvention will be in part obvious from an inspecbuckle of general application and specifically retion of the accompanying drawing and in part lates to a brace of the turnbuckle type for use will be more fully set forth in the following parin tying together the legs of furniture. The ticular description of one form of device empresent disclosure constitutes a development of bodying the invention, and the invention also the screw rod element of the brace for furniture consists in certain new and novel features of condisclosed. in my copending application Serial struction and combination of parts hereinafter No. 113,100 filed November 28, 1936. set forth and claimed.

The present disclosure like that in the above In the accompanying drawing: H m identified. copending application in its specific Fig. 1 is a plan View looking upwardly from application to its use as a furniture brace rethe underside of a chair equipped with a prelates to a brace structure wherein a pair of U ferred embodiment of the invention showing the or V-shaped tension members connectthe furnibrace in operative position;

, ture legs together in pairs and a turnbuckle act- Fig. 2 is an enlarged view in side elevation of ing between the wires draws them together unthe turnbuckle and associated parts, shown in der tension and thus interlocks the legs in firm plan in Fig. l, and with the screw rod in its norengagement with the associated seat. mal straight. position before the brace has been The present disclosure features an improved tightened. into its final position; form of turnbuckle screw rod operable auto- Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing the matically as it is located in operative position turnbuckle in its operative position as viewed J3 for defeating any tendency of itself and thus of from the plane indicated by the line 3-3 of Fig. the turnbuckle to loosen itself after it has been looking in the direction of the arrows; and

in use for a while. In the prior device it was Fig. 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view suggested that the screw rod element of the turntaken axially through the right hand nut when nuts first by causing the nuts each to cant more trating the canted position of the nut angled on or less into an angled binding engagement with the screw rod.

the screw rod, and, second, in order to more posi- The chair is is provided with a seat ll and. tively insure the non-rotation of the screw rod, it four legs, 52, i3, l iand l5, and associated rungs was therein suggested that a lock rod have one i6 connecting the legs and otherwise the showing 30 end passed through an opening in the screw rod is intended to illustrate a standard form of fourand its other end secured to the underside of the leg chair. The brace. I8 is formed of two U- chair and in this way prevent the screw rod from shaped tensiorrwires l9 and 29 provided at opporotating. site ends with screws M by means of which the 35 It is an object of the present disclosure to obbrace may be readily attached to the legs and 35 tain a locking of the screw rod in its set position in the illustrated showing wire it connects toand at the same time to simplify the structure gether legs l2 and i and wire similarly condisclosed in the pending application by omitting nects thepair of legs I? and M. The wires Hi the lock rod and to depend upon a bending or and 28 are. connected at their crotch portion by buckle be locked from. turning in its associated in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 3 and illusdistorting of the screw rod to defeat any tendmeans of a turnbuckle 22 which includes a nor- 40 ency of the screw rod to re-rotate in its assomally straight, metal screw rod 23 having a flat ciated nuts by utilizing the spring or resiliency disc-like portion 24 at its midlength and proof the screw rod to effect a binding engagement 'vided on opposite sides thereof with threads in between the rod and the nuts adjusted thereon. relatively reversed direction. It is a feature of Broadly, this objective is attained by providing this disclosure and in this respect distinguishes 45 midlength of the screw rod a weakened portion from the similar part of the prior application in which willpermit a bending or distorting of the that the disc-like portion 2& is relatively thin screw rod and by providing the nuts each with a considered in its vertical dimension and to this laterally extending projection which when enextent may be regarded as a weakened portion gaged by the tension member will exert a levercapable of being bent along a transverse line at 50 age effect on the nuts to cant the same into bindits midlength as indicated in Fig. 3.

ing engagement with the screw rod and to cause Mounted-on opposite ends of the screw rod 23 the twonuts to'act on the rod to bend the same are nuts 24 and 25, each provided with an upabout its weakened central portion. wardly projecting portion or post 25. Each por- Various other objects and advantages of the tion is provided on its inner face wtih a groove 21 55 threads.

ing to bear further curved when viewed in plan and in which grooves are slidably mounted respectively the tension wires l9 and 20. The flat bendable portion 24 is provided centrally thereof wtih an eye 28 decylindrical form providing a relatively long bearing on the screw rod and the threads of the nut and screw rod are so designed that the rod can rotate about its own longitudinal axis with relatively easy rotary movement through the nuts while the rod is centered in the aligned bores of the nuts while the rod is in its normal straight position as shown in Fig. 2.

In this form of the invention it is preferable to so proportion the length of the wires l9 and 20 that the brace as a whole extendsin a substantially horizontal plane at least during the initial part of its securing operation.

The parts are so arranged that rotating the screw rod 23 by means of a tool inserted in the eye 28 causes the nuts 24 and 25 to move towards each other as from the position shown in Fig. 2 towards the position shown in Figs. 1 and 3 and thus exert a powerful tension on the wires l9 and 20. This pull or tension reacts on the legs in a tendency to move them inwardly towards the center of the chair and thus cause the legs to bear towards each other against the several rungs. As the turning movement of the turnbuckle increases and severe pull is placed on the wires l9 and 20, the laterally oiTset pull of the wires I 9 and 20 each on its associated nut as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 will cause the nut to rotate bodily clockwise about a self contained horizcntal axis. In the case of the right nuts 25 as shown in Fig. 4 this movement will be clockwise, or anti-clockwise with reference to the left hand nut 24, to cause, as by reference to Fig. 4, the upper right hand side of the nut thread to dig down deeper into the thread of the rod and to lift the lower left hand side of the nut thus forcing the end turns of the nut thread firmly and laterally against the adjacent turns of the screw This bending of one thread on to the other acts to resist any accidental rotary movement of the screw rod about its own axis relative to the nuts which are thus held in space in their normal upright position by the pull of the wires I9 and 20 as shown in Fig. 2.

A further rotary movementunder any necessary force will cause a further movement of each nut towards the other and against the associated ends of the screw rod; the right hand nut tenddownwardly in a clockwise direction and the left hand nut similarly bearing downwardly in an opposing or counterclockwise movement. This causes the rod as a whole to bend about its weakened portion 24 and the parts will eventually assume the position shown in Fig. 3 and which showing is slightly exaggerated to show clearly the relation of the two ends of the rod. In this condition the resilient rod in its reactory tendency to restore itself to its normal straight condition shown in Fig. 2 will tend further to secure the rod against any tendency to re-rotate itself into position to loosen the nuts and the parts are thus firmly maintained in their fixed position as long as this tension condition exists.

Should it be desired for any reason to loosen the turnbuckle, downwardly directed pressure is first applied on top of the disc portion 24 when in the position shown in Fig. 3, thus to restore the screw rod into or towards its normal straight position as illustrated in Fig. 2 thus restoring the nuts and rod to their normal coaxial position after which the screw rod can be re-rotatcd more or less easily until the tension of the wires l5 and 20 has been released on the nuts, after which the parts can be even more easily unscrewed and the parts demounted for repair or substitution of broken parts.

It is also suggested that inthe case of small size chairs and large size braces that the nuts be reversed in position on their associated rod ends to locate the slots 27 in relatively outwardly facing position and the crotch portions of the wires !9 and 20 be arranged in overlapping relation and engaging in the outwardly facing grooves. In this case, of course, tension is placed thereon by rotating the screw rod in a direction to cause the nuts to recede from each other. Likewise in this case extensive tension on the wires l9 and 20 will cause the nuts to bind the turns of the nut threads into engagement with the turns of the screw rocl threads as previously described for the Fig. 1 arrangement.

By means of the structure herein disclosed it is possible to lock the screw rod against accidental re-rotary, loosening movement without necessity of employing the lock rod featured in the prior application and incidentally effecting a saving not only in the necessity of supplying this extra part but also avoiding any necessity of providing a seat or other fixed part to which the lock rod must be secured.

I claim:

1. Aturnbuckle comprising a screw rod having an unthreaded mid-portion of relatively reduced cross section in one transverse dimension, a pair of nuts in normally freely rotatable and oppositely threaded engagement with threaded portions of the screw rod on oppositesides of said mid-portion, tension means engaging the nuts on one side of the rod, reacting initially on the nuts in relatively opposing directions substantially parallel to the length of the rod and thus tending to reduce the normal freedom of rotary movement between manually actuated means for rotating the screw rod to cause the nuts to approach each other and thus cause the tension members to cant the nuts into binding engagement with the screw rod and said nuts acting with a leverage effect on the rod tobend the same about said reduced midportion as an integral hinge, said mid-portion forming an area sufficiently weak to permit it being bent under the force inherent in such mancient resiliency when so bent to react on the nuts I to hold them in binding engagement with the rod whereby the nuts and rod are secured autoby a relatively short, flat central portion of less cross-sectional area than the end portions, said flat portion forming an integral hinge, a pair of nuts in oppositely threaded engagement with the the nuts and the rod and ing tension on said tension means and the tension means extending substantially parallel to the length of the rod when the latter is straight, said rod reacting through the nuts and tension means when the rod is rotated in one direction by a manual force to cause the nuts first to cant into binding engagement with the end portions and then to bend the rod about its fiat hinge portion to cause the end portions to extend at an angle 10 to each other, said end portions being sufliciently rigid to resist binding at any point along their lengths by any such manual force whereby the end portions each remain straight and form an angle with its associated tension means, the elasticity of the flat central portion in its tendency to restore the straight end portions to their designed positions acting to resist the normal freedom of rotary movement of the rod through the nuts.

JOHN H. GROSS. 

